In early 2006, a friend and I were talking about how being HIV+ makes it harder to date or find a comfortable / safe environment to meet and become friends with other quality HIV+ men. We had tried the on-line dating sites, but they miss the personal interaction. The bars are great, but there is always that fear of rejection based on HIV status alone.
There are many great organizations in and around the Los Angeles area. We admire and respect the contributions and services they are providing the HIV+ community. However, to our knowledge, there was little to nothing that caters to the social aspect of the healthy, working HIV+ community. Any activities we found were scheduled during the work day which makes it impossible for healthy, working HIVers to attend. Activities we found scheduled in the evenings are therapy based, discussion groups or workshops, which is not what all of us are looking for.
We came to the conclusion that there was a niche to be filled that provided working HIV+ guys a way to gather and meet in a fun social environment. We decided to take things into our own hands and create our own group.
We put together a profile and after posting it on various internet sites, we started to get some great feedback. On Friday, March 17, 2006, we hosted our first Game Night with 8 guys attending. The positive feedback from the first night encouraged us to keep the momentum going. More guys continued contact us to join in on the fun and by the third Game Night we were hosting over 20 guys.
To-date, we have over 1400 members on our mailing list. The group consists of men from the surrounding Los Angeles area (Silver Lake, Glendale, Pasadena, West Hollywood and all over the Valley). We also have members that attend our activities from Orange County, Long Beach, San Diego, Ventura and Santa Barbara.
We know there are more guys looking for something different from the norm. So we continue to look for guys that are interested in having an Activity or Game Nights in a private home or other social venues. We are looking for other HIV+ guys that are open to meeting new people outside of their normal peer group to make new friends. We only ask everyone to leave the attitude at home, respect everyone in the group, and have FUN!
There is NEVER AN EXCLUSION based on age, race, looks, body type, etc......
EVERYONE IS WELCOME!
We are not a non-profit and do not receive money from any other organizations or the government. As with everything, there are costs involved with this website on an on-going basis that must be paid. Membership fees are necessary to cover these cost.
Membership Fee Options are:
$5.00 for 30 days
$15.00 for 90 days
$30.00 for 6 months